Federal Government Attacks on Boeing Fuel Our National Economic Suicide

Sometimes by favoring a narrow constituency, the federal government can cause economic devastation for a company or a state and even encourage companies to manufacture outside the United States. In terms of sheer economic stupidity, the Obama Administration committed an economic felony when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered Boeing to shutter a spanking new $2 billion facility that would have created 1,000 much-needed new jobs in South Carolina.

Last week, the NLRB told Boeing that it could not open the facility it had spent three years creating to build its new Dreamliner series of airplanes. The NLRB did not deem the plant unsafe or harmful to South Carolina workers. The NLRB simply said that it could block Boeing from using the new plant as Boeing’s decision to locate it in South Carolina was in part based on a desire to avoid work stoppages and strikes, and this rationale was harmful to unions and thus an illegal act.

Never before has the federal government told a company it may not relocate within the United States. Never before has the statute used been interpreted to affect a decision on where a product is made. Never before has the Constitutional goal of easing interstate commerce been so trampled by a formal act of the federal government.

This outrageous overreach is unacceptable and will certainly be overturned in time by the federal courts. But the process may take years, and meanwhile a great American company – and one of our nation’s largest exporters – will be hurt irreparably. Imagine the Boeing customers abroad who placed firm orders awaiting their new planes; Airbus must be getting lots of calls and new orders thanks to this decision.

Our federal government has become the enemy of job creators. Look at the facts here: South Carolina’s Dreamliner production line would be in addition to, not instead of, Boeing’s production line in Seattle. Boeing is already facing a backlog of orders for the plane, and this NLRB action, if not reversed soon, will certainly cause it to lose orders for these American-built planes. The NLRB apparently wants the second line to also be produced in the Puget Sound area – also silly if you see what too much concentration of production capacity in one venue can do (witness the Sendai area in Japan). The greatest irony is that if Boeing had put this facility in Canada or even in China the NLRB probably could not have ordered its shutdown (but who knows given their perverse interpretation of the law).

The Obama Administration has been criticized as light on those with any real business experience. If you have not made a payroll or never created a job you can play in the niceties of doing what union fundraisers want. But with all due respect to my father who was a union activist until he died, unions have lost their way. Having successfully changed laws to protect worker safety, overtime and vacation compensation, and even process for termination, unions are pushing our nation over the edge with unaffordable defined benefit pensions and no-fire tenure.

This latest example with the NLRB and Boeing pushes the “union gets everything it wants” envelope further; it is just one more reason why a company would choose not to manufacture in the United States. I suspect even my loyal unionist dad would say he and his fellow WWII veterans might think this controlling government action is beyond the American ideal for which they fought.

Our government is killing American jobs. American companies compete in the real world, and our nation is in real trouble as we isolate ourselves, create trade barriers and handcuff our best companies with absurd policies, excessive litigation costs, high taxes and social engineering.

It is time for common sense. South Carolina Senators should filibuster the Senate until this issue is resolved. Business groups must speak up. Responsible Democrats and Republicans must demand this action be reversed. This march towards national economic suicide must end, and immediate reversal of this act of insanity against Boeing is a good place to start.